Programming and description languages may require a formal syntax to describe data types and their values. Methods are believed to be available for defining data structures using a formal notation, independently of a specific language. The data types defined in accordance with one of these methods may be of a desired complexity and may dynamically change in part. Thus, such data types should be clearly represented for display purposes or to enable user input of values. This should be done for the management of communications networks, since very complex data structures may be processed in these networks.
In various languages and syntax notations, rules exist for textually representing values. Thus, for example, when working with ASN.1 data types in accordance with ITU-T recommendation X.208, the value is represented as a character string in a manner, which is not believed to be very straightforward.
It is believed that the structure of the data type may be recognizable when the form of representation of a tree is used. A representation of this kind is discussed in the reference “IBM TMN Development Platform”, Piscataway, N.J., U.S.A., 1998. Another method is believed to include assigning the value of an attribute to a graphic component by manually creating rules, for example, defining the color of the graphic object by the value of the data type, discussed, for example, in the reference “Objective Systems Integrators: NetExpert Framework Overview”, Folsom, Calif., U.S.A., 1997.
Since any data type definitions at all may be possible, it is believed that the available methods may expend a great deal of time programming a separate graphical user-interface window for each new data type.